The Tal'Pel

Slavery, betrayal, corruption, horses.

The party travels from the Nentir Vale (Fallcrest County) northwest along a road leading into the Antebur Forest. There they meet a wagon caravan being accosted by a bandit party, which they handle quite easily. The wagon caravan is eager to accept their aide, saying they need to reach Allenbury to deliver this shipment of gold to the Duke there. The party obliges, reaches Allenbury, and through a series of miscommunications, misunderstandings, and misdirection, they enlist the help of several bandit parties and burn the place to the ground, killing the Duke and all the residents.

They then find the clue they should have found earlier. The Bartender has been trafficking slaves to something called the Tal’Pel. The party then heads off to Umbifeld Manor and helps with the Goblin problem there, meeting their first abomination. Superdarsh instructs the refugee servants to head to Allenbury, now renamed “Sypocalypse” and build him a stable for his nearly dead horse that he insists is in perfect health.

They then travel to Kalinmar, help a Dwarven Blacksmith find his missing apprentice, and Alice attempts to purchase something that is more powerful than his 2d12 mace. He has no luck, and is promptly stripped if this glitch in the system, returning his mace to 1d8.

They travel to Tal’Qul, meet some Repulsers, meet a big tall guy that tells them they instigated a fight that the party insists was not their fault, and fall asleep. They wake up in the rain, travel to Reivenhold, and so are you caught up.

Today, the party arrived in Reivenhold, a largely economic town settled on the Thunderwave River. They immediately set out on a quest for more advance armor and weapons, which they found little of, save for the weapon augmentation that allowed Zandar’s crossbow to shoot more accurately with unlimited magic bolts, but packed less of a punch. While negotiating a price on this item, the rest of the party looked around the docks of the Reivenhold Harbour. They found several large wooden crates being offloaded from a ship that shocked you when you touched them. A guard told them to let the crates alone.

They met a man named Professor Ibaldtus Unicorn, the leader of the Abolitionist Minds of Reivenhold, a group sworn to stamp out slavery in the Tal’Pel nation. After a short meeting with Professor Unicorn, it became clear that something in Reivenhold was amiss; Unicorn accused the Duke of trafficking in slaves. While proposing little evidence to support his claim, the party quickly overlooked this. They seem to have it out for the rulers of city-states.

Trekking outside the walls to the cave, they find two mercenary types guarding the entrance to the manor’s basement-cellar-dungeon-thing. This is contrary to what Unicorn told them, which was that the caves and basement-cellar-dungeon-thing were usually empty. After haphazardly throwing themselves unto the roaring slaughter that is an intersection, they realize that this place is certainly not empty…

Presently, Evaelethil is trapped behind a black wall of force, the rest of the party is handling the minion problem, and someone, somewhere, is probably cackling delightfuly because their plan has worked out perfectly.

Also, Sheldon the Ferocious (who has clearly proclaimed himself so, and without reason) finally killed an enemy. While a minion was charging toward him, he quickly punched through his chest, pulled out his heart and ate it. Well played, sir. Well played.